Gadget and game lovers all, every once of us is interested in seeing whether or not our latest handheld devices — our phones, our portable media players, even our digicameras — are capable of delivering retro gaming fun through the glory of console emulation. In fact, as soon as a new phone or handheld device is configured to run an emulator, the usual feeds begin to erupt with headlines, proclaiming it a viable retro-gaming solution.

It would be natural for a cell phone company to try to harness that word of mouth from the get-go by demonstrating their soon-to-be-released handset playing classic games. But, as Nokia learned when they demonstrated their new N900 smartphone playing emulated retro games, companies should resist the temptation: it’s a trap, because while emulation is perfectly legal, most ROMS are not.

Nokia demonstrated the N900 playing emulated games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World in an official video blog post. “There’s already a bunch of great retro gaming emulator apps available for you to download,” the video’s narration claims, while showing off buttons that appear to open emulators for systems including Nintendo’s Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES and SNES.

But Nintendo’s not so amused. Nintendo UK PR manager Robert Saunders said that the company was unaware of Nokia’s apparent move, but added: “We take rigorous steps to protect our IP and our legal team will examine this to determine if any infringement has taken place.”

Nokia’s now scrambling to clean up their act, but hopefully a lesson has been learned: it’s great if your smartphone can run emulators, just make sure your ROMs are legal before you do so.